Lost
by anonyreaderfan
Summary: The story takes place approximately two hundred years in the future. Stefan left Mystic Falls heartbroken over the way things ended with Elena and his brother's perceived betrayal. The world has changed dramatically. Not a love story, rather a story of lost loves and lost lives. Characters in order of appearance: Stefan, Damon, Tyler, Elena
1. Chapter 1

~ Year 2213 ~

Stefan looked around the government approved escape bar searching for a likely snack. He hadn't even bothered to check out the name of the place when he wandered in. What difference did it make? They were all the same; serving approved drugs that helped people cope with the overcrowding and stress of everyday life.

He himself was something of an oddity because he had no injection port in his wrist, preferring the old fashioned method of imbibing his alcohol. The bartender was mildly curious about him. Most people his age preferred the instant gratification of an IV dose of their favorite drug.

Stefan sipped a brandy while he pondered which drug flavored blood he wanted a taste of. Hallucinogen? Upper? Trank? Alcohol? He wasn't particularly hungry so he was in no hurry to choose.

He didn't immediately turn around when an importuning hand pressed against his back, choosing instead to ignore the bid for his attention. He was frequently propositioned and sometimes he accepted but tonight he wasn't in the mood.

The hand tapped him again, rougher this time, a good indication its owner wasn't going to take no for an answer.

Stefan sighed and turned around, prepared to compel if necessary. He was stunned to see his brother standing in front of him.

"Hello brother." Damon spoke softly. His diffident posture and face indicated he was unsure of his welcome.

Stefan regarded him for a moment and then replied. "Hello Damon."

Damon took the fact that Stefan hadn't immediately bolted as a positive sign and he couldn't keep a relived grin off his face. He reached over and grasped the face of the person sitting next to Stefan, twisting it around to face him. "You're sitting in my seat."

The person immediately apologized profusely and left, and Damon wasting no time slipped into the vacant seat. "Let me buy you a drink."

Stefan just pressed his money chip to the scanner embedded in the bar. When _Payment Complete_ flashed Stefan gathered himself up to leave. Damon grabbed his arm, applying enough pressure to keep him hovering over his seat. He couldn't break the grip without causing a scene and alerting the peace enforcers.

"Talk to me Stefan. It's been two hundred years." Damon pleaded.

When Stefan showed no signs of relenting Damon added. "I need my little brother."

Some of the stiffness went out of Stefan's body and he collapsed back down into the seat. He closed his eyes briefly as if gathering his strength for what was coming.

"What is there to talk about?" Stefan's voice betrayed only weariness.

"We've had problems before but we've always been able to get beyond them. We should be together. We're family. You shouldn't be alone."

Stefan regarded him for a long moment and then said quietly. "You're right. We shouldn't be alone. Why is it I don't think you are? You're not alone, are you Damon?"

Damon's answer was forthright. "We're still together but it's not right without you. We're not complete."

Damon caught the bartender's eye and held up two fingers and then pointed to his brother and himself. "I need a drink before I talk more."

Stefan nodded understanding. "Yeah, we're enough to make anyone want to drink."

Damon's plummetting hopes were buoyed by the fact that Stefan had made a small joke.

They waited quietly for the drinks to come. Damon held his up to Stefan, silently asking for a toast.

Stefan shook his head in resignation and touched his plexi-cup to his brother's. They both took a big gulp.

"She's not sired anymore Stefan." He took another swig as if for courage. "She wants to see you."

Stefan didn't react the way Damon expected. There was no exaltation, no smile, no triumph; in fact there was no emotion at all. Damon felt deflated by his brother's lack of reaction.

He was flabbergasted when Stefan said. "She's behind me Damon. It doesn't matter."

"What?" Damon's eyebrows threatened to rise off his face. "Of course, it matters. She's making her own decisions and she wants you."

Stefan smiled sadly. "I don't care."

Damon was shocked into silence. His mouth opened and then closed. He was unable to find words to express his astonishment. A happy thought struck him. "Then we can be together again."

He waxed enthusiastically. "Family should be together."

His exuberance dimmed when Stefan's expression stayed the same. "I don't care about you either."

Damon fired up. "Cut the crap. You need family. You've always needed family. That's why you turned me so you wouldn't be alone. I need family. It's why I always swore I wouldn't allow anyone but me to kill you. We're always there for each other."

"Wrong tense." Stefan corrected him. "We WERE always there for each other." Stefan played with his drink, sloshing the remaining liquid around the plastic cup. "You're right about one thing Damon. I always needed family. I always will. You destroyed mine for me. I had to find a new one and I did."

Damon stared at him in disbelief. "You can't just make family out of thin air."

Stefan turned his head to look at his brother. "People do it all the time." Stefan turned to look forward again, eyes on a faraway spot. "At first I wanted to die. I just wanted the pain to end. I kept playing with the idea of taking my ring off. It would hurt so much less than the pain in my heart."

He looked back at his brother. "And then one day I tried it but someone was there to stop me. Someone in as much pain as me. We moved on together. I'm not going back Damon."

Stefan's mouth twisted. "Lexi told me a long time ago that you weren't good for me. I shoulda listened to her."

"What about Elena?" Damon asked.

"I loved her with all my heart and that love almost destroyed me. I need to stay away from her."

Stefan stood up. "I wish your family well Damon. Thanks for the drink."

A stunned Damon sat, a deep sadness filling him. He had missed his brother terribly. He was so filled with regret, so sure that time would heal the wounds and they could start over. He rested his head in his hands. He let despair wash over him for a moment. He had never imagined that Stefan would not forgive him, would refuse to see Elena.

He mentally shook himself. He would not give up. He just had to regroup and try again. He was always able to wear Stefan down and he would do it this time. He just couldn't lose track of him.

He quickly left the bar, stepping out into the oppressive heat that was normal even for this time of the night. He listened carefully for Stefan's footsteps and then got on the moving platform. So intent was he on tracking his brother that he was caught completely unawares. He was swept off the moving walkway and knocked down a level to the street.

So startled was he that he was pushed up against the smooth cement building in an alleyway before he even thought to defend himself. He attempted to break free only to end up on the filthy street, a big boot pressing his face into the debris. He was disgusted with himself for being overpowered so easily.

"Hello Damon."

That was definitely a voice from the past and Damon soon put a name to it. "Tyler."

"You always were a sharp one." An amused sarcastic voice replied from above him.

"Are you going to take your nasty foot off my face?"

"Depends. Is your nasty face going to listen like a reasonable person or are you going to be a typical Damon dick?"

"I'll listen."

The foot was removed and Damon slowly got to his feet, carefully brushing his face and clothes, totally unhappy about the filth on them. He looked around to see Tyler casually standing, arms crossed, careful not to lean against the grimy building walls.

Damon acidly asked. "Couldn't you find a cleaner place to dump me?"

Tyler shrugged. "I'm not too particular about what I do to you."

Damon stood warily, hands hanging loose at his sides, eyes scanning the area, prepared to defend himself if necessary.

"So are you going to tell me why you attacked me?"

Tyler shrugged. "Simple. Stay away from Stefan."

Damon's eyes narrowed angrily. "He's my brother. I'll decide if I leave him alone or not."

"You gave him up a long time ago." Tyler replied. "I'm not going to have a debate with you."

"You shouldn't be so cocky hybrid boy. Klaus would be interested to know where you are." Damon went on the attack, making his tone as offensive as possible, stressing the word boy.

"Yeah, he would." Tyler admitted. "And it would be just like you to mess things up for Stefan. You make it a habit to kill his friends or destroy every relationship he's ever had. Why should now be any different?"

Tyler started to walk away, tossing over his shoulder. "One bite from me and you get the miserable death you've more than earned so think twice before you try to contact your brother again."

Damon took a deep breath. What Tyler said hurt but he acknowledged there was some truth in it.

"Wait. So have you two been traveling together?"

Tyler stopped but didn't turn around or answer.

"I need to know he's okay." Damon's quiet words made Tyler turn back to him. He didn't move any closer but he didn't retreat either.

"Yeah, we stick close. Neither one of us wants to be alone. I need a pack. He needs someone to stop him when he thinks he's gonna lose it."

Tyler jammed his hands in his pockets. "He's been in control for a long time now. Don't ruin it Damon. Don't bring her around. Don't let her drive him over the edge again."

Tyler looked away from the vampire for a moment and then turned back to say fiercely. "You say you care about him. Them prove it. Leave him alone. It's the best thing you can do for him."

Tyler whooshed away leaving Damon alone in the alley. Alone with his thoughts.


	2. Chapter 2

Tyler knew immediately he was being shadowed. He caught the distinctive whiff of vampire scent and what's more he was easily able to identify the owner. After more than two hundred years he still remembered that particular odor. He and Stefan were set to leave town. It would be no problem for him to avoid the person trailing him but he was suddenly filled with an overpowering desire to see this person. To see someone from his childhood. The feeling grew, swelling until it overwhelmed him and he decided to give in to it. Just this once.

He ducked around a corner and when Elena walked by he plucked her off the walking sidewalk and held her by the throat at arm's length. She made no attempt to fight him.

"Don't try to sneak up on a werewolf. They can smell you a mile away."

"I'll remember that." Her face was serene, displaying no fear.

She should have been afraid. One bite from him and she knew she would die a horrible death. Her total disregard for self preservation told its own story. Somehow Tyler wasn't surprised. He was a card carrying member of that fraternity that knew there were worse things than death.

Her next words were. "Can we talk?"

"Come with me." Tyler replied.

He led her to one of the few public parks in this huge urban sprawl. It was not their designated day or hour to escape from the hordes of people but they were easily able to compel their way in.

Elena took a deep breath enjoying this brief respite from the crowds that constantly assaulted her enhanced senses. It was such a relief to ease up on the iron control necessary to keep from being driven insane by the noise and smells.

They sat on a bench and eyed each other in silence.

"You look good with short hair." He finally said.

"You look good with long hair. Strange, but good." She said.

He grinned. "I can't get used to it but you have to stay with the times." He pointed to his clothes. "I would give anything to wear jeans again. I hate these synthetics."

She laughed quietly. "I know what you mean."

She then hastened to assure him. "Damon won't go to Klaus. You don't have to be afraid of that."

She was surprised when Tyler just chuckled. "It doesn't matter. Klaus isn't going to kill me. I just said it so Damon would run off to him and give us time to get away."

Elena's confused face made him say. "You don't get it do you?"

She shook her head. "I thought Klaus hated you . . . hadn't forgiven you for his hybrid revolt."

"He does hate me and he'll never forgive me." When she still looked mystified he said. "I better explain the whole thing."

He frowned, thinking about where to begin. "You have to understand about wolves. We're pack animals. Family animals. It's why the strain is still around. We've been persecuted for ages. Wiped out time and again by vampires. Klaus did the last big purge. Hunted down and killed every werewolf in a blind rage but they've come back again. Do you know why?"

She looked thoughtful. "You gave me the answer, didn't you? Family animals. He killed the werewolves but they had children, male relatives that passed on the gene."

"Yup." Tyler nodded at her. "We can't stand to be alone. We'll do anything to have family, put up with anything. We're often prominent in the community. Like the Lockwoods in Mystic Falls. The town becomes OURS, our town and we protect it."

He sighed and knit his hands together. "So what's the worst thing you can do to a werewolf."

Understanding dawned on her. "Make them live alone." She studied him, pity now in her face and voice. "You make them live alone."

Tyler nodded, meeting her gaze. "Klaus wiped out every male Lockwood he could find, no matter how distant. He left other families so when another doppelganger comes along he can force a werewolf but he made sure I have no family. The ultimate revenge." He gave a huff of sad laughter. "No, I take that back. The ultimate revenge is eternal life alone."

Her face was stricken and she whispered more to herself than him. "Eternity alone."

They were both lost for awhile in their own thoughts until Elena finally gave herself a mental shake.

"It's so strange." She said.

"What is?" Tyler prompted. She looked up startled and gave a little laugh. "So strange seeing you . . basically unchanged . . when the world has changed so much."

She made a disjointed flailing motion with one hand, saying. "I grew up thinking the world would always get better. Each generation would have more than the last. Mankind would conquer all."

Tyler nodded watching the emotions flit across her face.

She was silent again, her eyes far away. She shook herself, coming back to the present.

"I'm getting old." She laughed. "My face and body don't change but my mind does."

Tyler sighed. "I know what you mean. I try to change, to fit in, but I look back at my youth . . and I feel that was best."

She asked seriously. "You don't feel like you're connected with these times?"

He face sobered. "No. Not really. I feel out of step."

Elena nodded. "I think about that a lot lately. I could never understand how Klaus could be so uncaring about humans. Like they didn't matter. But I'm beginning to understand. You feel so detached from them. Not part of them. Like a rock in the middle of a stream. The water flows all around, moving on, but you're just stuck there in the same old place."

Tyler nodded. "You don't know the current slang. You don't have the same attitudes. You expect different things from life."

They sat quietly for a moment as a tiny bit of moisture, more of a brief mist fell from the sky. That little bit of moisture in the air was a rarity for this season and had to be savored.

Elena shook her head. "A beautiful day used to mean a bright sunny warm day. To these people it's the smallest relief from the constant heat. Fierce wild destructive storms or baking heat, not much in-between. I don't know this world we live in. And I don't much like it. People packed like sardines in a can."

She looked at Tyler. "How do you stand it?"

Tyler started to laugh. He laughed for so long Elena started to wonder if he was okay. Her bewildered look sobered him up. "The answer to your question is the elephant in the room. Stefan. But I started laughing because you can't say that. No one understands what you're talking about when you say that phrase. And sardines in a can. There haven't been sardines in the ocean in a hundred years. If you said that to anyone but someone like me or you they wouldn't know what you were talking about. It belongs to another era."

Her face changed when Tyler mentioned his name. A hungry look came over her. She said the name, sliding it over her tongue, like she could taste it. "Stefan."

Tyler, hearing the yearning in her voice, felt a stab of pity. "Yeah. He keeps me current."

Tyler looked thoughtful. "I asked him how he stays so in tune with the changes. He said it's because he got his start when the world was younger. Before it started to change at such a phenomenal speed. It gave him time to learn to keep up. Gave him time to learn how."

Tyler shook his head. "I have trouble with it."

Tyler idly traced a pattern in the synthetic grass with the toe of his shoe. "He's my pack now Elena. He's what gives me the strength to defy Klaus and go on living. He's got this connection with humanity. I can't explain it. He never forgets that he was one of them. He never stops caring about them. During the plagues he did everything he could to help. I worked with him at first because he was doing it but his caring made me care."

He looked puzzled. "I don't know how he does it but he makes you want to care. Like I said . . can't explain it."

"You don't have to. I know what you mean." Her voice was choked. Tyler glanced over at her but she wouldn't look at him.

She sighed deeply. "I want to . . no, I need to tell you my story."

She didn't see him nod but he didn't think his consent made any difference to her. She was going to talk whether he was listening or not.

"You know I was sired and I was fine with it. Damon gave me the life he said he would. Excitement. Wonders. Pleasure. Risks. Adventure . Parties every night. Nothing was ever dull around him. We caused big ruckuses and somehow got out of them. We made big love and had wild times."

She smiled, shaking her head, remembering. "Then about fifty years ago I noticed there were tiny signs that I was changing. There was a restlessness, a questioning that wasn't there before. I found myself in the middle of some new adventure wondering why? What was I accomplishing? A feeling that what I was doing was senseless. But I would shake it off and continue on."

Her eyes were shadowed. Tyler watched curiously as she clasped her hands over her mouth and nose, a sign of distress. "I remember the exact moment it happened. I was in a park much like this and a mother had a newborn infant. Nothing new. She was holding the baby and she tickled it and its tiny little fingers with the little bitty nails grasped her pinkie. Amd suddenly I felt a pain so sharp it pierced my heart."

She looked at Tyler now and he saw how wounded she was. "It all came back. I remembered that I wanted a baby. Chlldren. That I never wanted to be a vampire. That I wanted to grow old with my husband, watching my children grow up. I wanted to watch football games and soccer games and chaperon school trips. That I wanted to spoil my grandchildren. That I wanted to die surrounded by my family."

Her big brown eyes filled with tears that she blinked away. "That was the start. The floodgates opened and I was her again . . the girl I used to be. I was Elena Gilbert, human girl who was going to make a difference in the world. Who loved her family."

Tyler nodded. "I know. I was going to be mayor of Mystic Falls."

They both laughed but the laughter died out as the realization of what they had lost hit them anew.

She was quiet for a moment then her mouth twisted. Tyler knew what she was going to say and he steeled his heart against it. "And that girl loved Stefan. That girl loves Stefan."

"Yeah, but it was the vampire Elena who tore his heart into pieces. Who was so in love with his brother that she jumped into his bed the day after you broke up with him." Tyler deliberately made his voice harsh.

She winced at his ruthless words, imploring. "No forgiveness in your heart? Have you never done anything you've regretted?"

He didn't try to dodge her gaze or her question. "You know I have. Are you going to tell me you don't know the story?"

She was the one who broke eye contact first. "I heard." She whispered. "I didn't think it could be true."

"It was." He baldly admitted. "I'm not proud of it but I did it. Liz died because of me. I was crazy with grief and rage over my mother. Over Klaus killing my pack."

It was over two hundred years in the past but his voice still held the remembered anger. "I was a fool. It was my fault they broke the sire bond and died. I pushed them into it. I let myself be used like a naïve idiot and my mother paid the price for my stupidity."

He shook his head regretfully, the anger draining out of him. "And then I thought she was giving in to Klaus. I wasn't thinking straight. I let Liz die. Why shouldn't she feel the pain I was feeling? She was betraying me. Betraying us."

He looked over at Elena and shrugged. "We both let people we love get hurt. Made them suffer. I will always bear that guilt. I don't expect Caroline to ever forgive me. I wouldn't even think of asking her to."

She nodded. "I was so happy when I turned. All the worry gone. So in love with Damon. I was so strong, my fears buried. My humanity wasn't necessary."

Tyler gave a little laugh. "If only it could last, but it doesn't, does it?"

She looked at him, biting her lip. "No, it doesn't." She barely whispered the words but his keen hearing heard them and the tremble in her voice.

It was now his turn to look down and inward. "You remember the feelings you felt as a human. You remember the hurt you did when you thought it didn't matter . . that you didn't care. . . that it wasn't important."

Elena stared at his bowed head.

"You remember the love you used to feel, that was so important to you and you want it back but you know you destroyed it."

He looked up at her. "You get maybe a hundred or more years where you have that immunity and then it comes back. And you can't hide from the pain that you caused. You can't turn off the longing."

The pain on her face hurt him.

"You understand." She whispered. "How do you stand it? How do you stand yourself?"

He shrugged. "I can't stand myself. I hurt her so bad." He shook his head regretfully. "I loved her. I love her now but she's with him. I blamed her but it wasn't her, it was me."

He was quiet for a moment seeing something only he could see. "I will have to live with that for the rest of my life." He made a face. "Whatya think? Five hundred years of pain . . of regret?"

Elena said. "I was so uncaring. I hurt him so bad and I thought nothing of it. I was so enthralled with Damon."

Tyler asked curiously. "Are you still sired?"

She shrugged. "I love him but I don't live and die by him."

Tyler's eyebrows rose. "This from the girl who did everything he asked."

Elena nodded sadly. "Heretical, isn't it? The sired dares to speak against her sire. I still care but its back to my human level of caring. I was attracted by his looks. His devil-may-care attitude. His desire for fun, his bad boy persona. So attractive to young girls."

She sighed and continued. "But the bad boy is only great in a fantasy world. Living with the bad boy isn't so great. They never settle down. You eventually get tired and want roots."

Tyler looked thoughtful. "I think your bad boy wants roots. I think his brother is his roots."

Elena just looked sad. "Isn't it just so messed up that his brother is what we both need and yet we both can't have him? Is this some type of colossal joke that someone is having at our expense?"

She got a faraway look on her face and her voice became dreamy. "I remembered him. The way he loved me. The way we thought the same. Everything he did for me. The way he allowed me to be me. I remembered how he fought to keep me human and then when I changed to change me back. How he respected my decisions."

She swallowed with difficulty. "And I remember how I treated him. The pain I caused him."

Her eyes gleamed with unshed tears she was too proud to let fall. "I can't forgive myself."

Elena swallowed and schooled her voice trying for a casual tone. "Has he found someone?"

Tyler smiled briefly. "He's been with different woman. The longest has been twemty years. Most last a couple of years or so."

"You?" She asked.

He made a face. "Same for me. Sometimes he has a girl, sometimes me, sometimes both of us. We always move on."

"You leave a lot of broken hearts behind?" Her smile was painful to watch.

Tyler gave it some thought. "Sometimes but most women recognize that we're broken. That it's not gonna last."

They both fell silent again. Tyler looked off squinting against the setting sun. He no longer admired the violent purple and reds. Now they were just a sign of the times and he longed for a muted color in the sky.

"I want to see him Tyler. I need to see him." She spoke in a low fervent voice.

"Same answer I told Damon. NO."

"Please. At least ask him for me. I know he will. We meant so much to each other." She pleaded.

Watching his face gave her a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. She was semi prepared for it but it was still a blow when he kindly said. "I did Elena. He never wants to see you again. There is no "we" to him."

Tyler didn't look happy about what he was saying. "He couldn't live the way you left him Elena. He had to get over you or die from the pain."

He had to turn away from the raw emotion on her face.

"What do I do now Tyler?" She looked like a lost little girl, hunching in on herself.

It reminded him of how she looked at her parent's funeral. Remembered her saying the same words to Jenna in that same forlorn tone.

"I don't have answers for you Elena." He felt the need to give her something. "Damon needs you. Stay with him."

She straightened up and wiped the tears from her cheeks. "But we're not enough for each other. Does it hurt you to know you had your heart's desire and you let it go? No, you pushed it away?"

"Yeah, it does but you have to go on living." Tyler said. "You go on living until you're too tired and then you die."

She stared straight ahead and then gave a little nod as if a decision had been reached. She stood looking down at him. "Goodbye Tyler."

He looked up at her somewhat at a loss. He opened his mouth but before he got a word out she was gone.


	3. Chapter 3

They sat in the Northern Air Train Depot lounge sprawled on the ergonomically designed seats, legs stretched out in front of them, arms spread over two seats, enjoying the unaccustomed absence of bodies pressing in on them from every side. It was so enjoyable to have space in a public area that they didn't even mind the piped in soothing music scientifically proven to influence the subconscious and reduce the stress caused by overcrowding.

Stefan glanced again at the destination screen for this lounge and the sight of New Arctic City floating across the display thrilled him every time it caught his eye. Their gear had been checked into the cargo car and would be part of the enormous line floating its way North on the air bed support rails. He ran over a checklist in his mind, even though he knew they had thought of everything. Passports, visas, credits, dehydrated blood . . everything was prepared.

"We'll be in the last frontier before we know it." He grinned boyishly. "I feel like a mountain man or a cowboy."

His enthusiasm infected Tyler. "Who would have thunk it? So many coastlines lost to global warming and then this new land springs up. Wish cowboy hats were still around." The hybrid added wistfully.

Stefan nodded agreement. "I know . . seems strange . . but they say the ice was so heavy it depressed the ground and when it melted the land sprung back up, so even though we lost the Arctic icecap we got back this new area. Imagine . . . a whole new country Arctica with habitable land."

Tyler raised an eyebrow, amiably disagreeing. "Habitable? Really? I think you're pushing it. If it's so habitable why aren't people rushing out there?"

Stefan smiled and shrugged. "Cause people have changed Tyler. They're a product of their times just like we are. We had stories of the frontiers. They have stories of plagues and storms and people drowning and chaos and war. They think it's normal to live like they do. Space scares most people."

Tyler teased. "So are we ready for the new frontier? We must be either real brave or real foolhardy."

"I call it foolhardy but that's always been my way. Charge in where others won't go."

Stefan jumped at the sound of his brother's voice. His head whipped around to see Damon, wearing an outfit similar to theirs standing at ease. He watched openmouthed as his brother settled into the seat across from them.

His eyes narrowed and he turned his head towards Tyler. Tyler's total lack of surprise or any type of reaction made him say reproachfully. "You knew he was coming."

When the hybrid made no attempt to deny it he stabbed a finger at him emphasizing his words. "How could you? You know how I feel about him."

Damon relaxed, leaning back with the air of a spectator about to watch a good sports game.

Tyler shrugged. "Your brother is king of the three P's."

Stefan's brow, wrinkled in confusion, caused Tyler to hastily explain. "Persistent. Pervasive. Persuasive. He wouldn't give up and he hounded me everywhere even with the threat of a bite. He got me to listen to him and he convinced me."

Tyler paused and then urged. "He's your family Stef. You need to mend fences."

"No . . No I don't." Stefan leaned forward, face and voice intense. "I made that choice a long time ago and I've never regretted it."

"But you will." Tyler refuted, his calm manner a distinct contrast to Stefan's agitation.

"Why? I put that pain behind me. I . . can . . not . . trust . . him."

Tyler argued. "He says you can and I believe him. He promises he won't repeat the mistakes he made in the past."

Damon confirmed. "I did say that."

"Shut up and butt out. This has nothing to do with you." Stefan irrationally snapped at him.

That statement made Damon blink but he forbore to point out that it had everything to do with him, understanding that Stefan was not thinking clearly at this point.

"You've been the only one I can trust." Stefan bitterly addressed Tyler. "Have I lost you too?"

Now it was Tyler's turn to heat up. He stared angrily at Stefan until the vampire lowered his eyes. "Are you going to take that back?"

Stefan breathed in harshly through his nose and visibly calmed himself. "Sorry. I was angry." He massaged his temple. "I don't want to fight with you."

Tyler's face softened and he used his booted foot to gently nudge Stefan. "Family is important. I think I would give anything . . do anything . . to have my family back. My cousins . . Aunts . . Uncles . . Dad . Mason . . Mom. I've lost them all."

He reached over and gently shook Stefan's shoulder. "You still have family. Still have a chance to make this right." Tyler sighed. "I envy you Stefan. You've still got hope. You don't have to spend the rest of your life mourning your losses. Take advantage of this."

Stefan hunched his shoulder. "I don't want to be around her."

"You won't. She's not coming." Damon spoke softly.

Startled, Stefan turned towards his brother. "What?"

"She left." Damon replied simply.

"How? Why?" Stefan wondered out loud.

Damon looked down for a moment before meeting his brother's eyes again. He gave a helpless shrug. "She's changed Stefan. She's been feeling things she hasn't felt or thought about in years. I . . I think her humanity is coming back." His lips twisted and he said. "Ask Tyler."

Stefan's head swung towards the hybrid who said. "I tried to tell you about our talk but you wouldn't listen."

His brother spoke again. "She said she needed time and space to figure out who she is. Who she wants to be. She's gonna look us up in a hundred years or so. She figures by then she should know herself and when she knows herself she'll know what she wants. She doesn't want to live the rest of her life regretting what could have been."

Stefan was apprehensive. "I don't want to go through it again."

"No fighting this time brother." Damon responded. He smiled that smile that everyone who knew him knew meant trouble. He looked at Tyler as he said. "She's gonna find Caroline and discuss some things with her."

Tyler shifted uncomfortably while Damon grinned knowingly. Stefan, watching Tyler squirm, smiled for the first time since his brother showed up. "Guess we'll all have something to look forward to."

Tyler shot Stefan a sour look but didn't rise to take the bait.

Damon, ready to change the subject, said. "So whatta we doing in this godforsaken place we're going to?"

"Prospecting." Stefan looked enthusiastic again. "Just like the gold rush days."

Damon's face was less than thrilled. "Sounds like hard boring work."

"Hard, dangerous work." Tyler interjected. "There's wolf packs up there and rogue vampires. Not many people so there's a lot of competition for what blood there is. The few humans that are up there are loners and misfits. Won't be easy pickings. No law to speak of. If you do strike a lode you're liable to get killed before you can claim it."

"There's room to breathe up there but we need to be on our guard. We'll have to fight to live." Stefan joined in. "Nothing much but drinking places and gambling. Only people who don't fit in go there."

Damon's eyes gleamed. "Oh yeah. Life around here has been too soft for a long time. I'll be in charge of our security."

Tyler held up an admonitory finger. "Whoa. If you're joining my pack, don't forget I'm alpha."

The vampire's eyebrows rose and he rolled his eyes. "I don't think so wolf boy. This will have to be a democracy."

"That's wolf man to you fang face." Tyler returned good naturedly.

Stefan shook his head. "Same old Damon."

His brother grinned. "Stick with me guys. I'll have everything planned out."

The other two just groaned.

A carefully soothing voice chimed overhead. "Boarding now for New Arctic City."

The three men looked at each other.

"Truce? New start?" Tyler asked.

Damon and Stefan looked at each other for a long moment sizing each other up before tentatively clasping hands for the first time in over two hundred years.

~ FIN ~


End file.
